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Updated September 2008
Nuclear Facilities: Overview
Roughly 25% of the world's uranium reserves are in Kazakhstan. The country is the world's third largest producer of uranium, after Canada and Australia, and plans to substantially increase production in the next decade by opening new mines. Kazatomprom, a state-owned corporation in control of the country’s nuclear industry, plans to reach annual production of 15,000 tons of uranium by 2010.
Kazakhstan played a key role during the Soviet era as a supplier and processor of uranium. Uranium was mined throughout the country and processed at Kazakhstan's Tselinnyy Mining and Chemical Combine and the Prikaspiyskiy Mining and Metallurgy Combine as well as at the Kara Balta Ore Mining Combine in Kyrgyzstan and Vostokredmet's Combine No. 6 in Tajikistan. Kazakhstan currently produces uranium dioxide pellets for nuclear fuel at Ulba Metallurgy Plant in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk. In summer 2008, Kazakhstan and Canada (Cameco) established a joint venture to construct a uranium conversion facility at the Ulba Metallurgy Plant.
Russia and Kazakhstan are actively pursuing cooperation in the nuclear industry.At a January 2006 summit, leaders of the two countries agreed to work out a plan by May 2006 for the integration of their nuclear industries, especially with respect to the Zarechnoye uranium mining venture and Ulba Metallurgy Plant.
Kazakhstan has five nuclear reactors: four research reactors and one power reactor. The National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan is responsible for the country's research reactors, including three at the former Semipalatinsk Test Site and one in Alatau, just outside the former capital of Almaty. The BN-350 power reactor in Aktau was shut down in April 1999. On 26 September 2000, the government of Kazakhstan rejected plans to build a new nuclear power plant at Lake Balkhash. However, on 21 November 2007, Kazakhstan’s Prime-Minister announced plans to construct, jointly with Russia, a new power plant in Aktau, which will host two 300 MWt reactor units. Kazatomprom and Russia’s Atomstroyeksport have established a joint venture, Atomnye Stantsii, to design and build medium-power reactors based on the VBER design.
Kazakhstan has several radioactive waste sites, including a storage facility for high-activity waste at the former Semipalatinsk Test Site.
